Screening Chief at Miami International Airport was fired as cop for soliciting sex

Steve Watson
Infowars.com
Dec 12, 2012

It is no exaggeration to say that the TSA is manned by an army of perverts and sexual deviants. The amount of stories that have emerged documenting this phenomenon is staggering. Here is yet another.

When it was revealed earlier this month that Miami International Airport had fired more TSA screeners this month for theft than at any other airport in the nation, the Miami New Times did some digging around to find out who was running the show down there.

The free weekly newspaper discovered that one of the head screeners at the airport, Juan Garcia, was fired in 2000 from an 18 year role as a cop. Why? Because he attempted to buy sex from a prostitute who, unfortunately for him, turned out to be one of his undercover colleagues.

Needless to say, Garcia was arrested and charged with soliciting a prostitute, and conduct unbecoming an officer. He resigned from the Miami Police Department shortly thereafter.

Now, Garcia is in charge of overseeing the metal-detectors, body scanners and full body-patdowns used and conducted by TSA screeners at MIA.

Garcia was said to have been hired not too long after his exit from the police department, and according to a TSA spokesperson, the agency had full knowledge of his sexual misdemeanors.

“[Garcia] fully disclosed the charge on his application.” a statement sent to the Miami New Times by the TSA reads.

“As part of a full background check, TSA determined the charge had been dropped and therefore did not violate any hiring qualifications.”

So, in this instance the TSA did perform a background check, and concluded that it didn’t matter that someone who likes to buy sex illegally would be groping the genitals of law abiding Americans on a daily basis.

Earlier this year, a television station in Atlanta reported, however, that the TSA is so backlogged that it is simply forgoing background checks, and hiring just about anybody to grope and irradiate the public.

“In a move that could affect security at airports around the nation, the Transportation Security Administration confirmed Wednesday it had such a backlog of background security checks, airport employers were allowed to hire any employee needed,” WSBTV reported. “TSA officials said the background checks are delayed, but they are processing them as fast as they can.”

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Orlando could soon be the destination of choice for Americans and other holiday makers who wish to avoid TSA harassment, after Orlando International Airport (OIA) said it could follow its neighbor airport, Orlando Sandford, in seeking to replace the government agency with private screeners.

As Fox 35 Orlando reports, the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority (GOAA) is now seeking to institute new customer service standards at the airport, with the Chairman suggesting that private security could be brought in should the TSA fail to meet them.

“Once we establish those (standards), we’ll evaluate,” said Chairman Frank Kruppenbacher. “Can the TSA meet those standards or not? Should we put it out for a bid?” he rhetorically asked.

The airport, currently under TSA security supervision ranks 11th for thefts by security screeners. Kruppenbacher described that as “unacceptable”, and raised the possibility of evicting the TSA.

“I could care less about the politics of this. All I care about is seeing those customers smiling, saying I love the airport, and I love Orlando, and we are going to do that.” Kruppenbacher said.

The Chairman said that members of the GOAA Board will make a decision based on a report due to be submitted in March 2013. If the TSA was deemed to fall outside of the required standards, the airport would then have to apply to be accepted for the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program, which enables airport authorities to opt out of using TSA workers, and instead use private operators to screen passengers, using federal standards and oversight.

Scores of airports throughout the country have already applied to evict the TSA, following the recent passage of a law by the Senate forcing the TSA to reconsider applications after it arbitrarily suspended the SPP program in 2010.

OIA’s neighbour airport, Orlando Sanford International announced in March that it was reapplying to evict the TSA following innumerable horror stories passengers have told of their encounters with the TSA. Airport president Larry Dale noted that the change was designed to provide a more “customer friendly” operation. The application was preliminarily approved in June, and could prompt a stampede of other airport opt-outs.

The TSA has been keen to downplay the opportunity for airports to dispense with their screeners, fearing a mass exodus that could undermine the justification for the agency’s continued existence, especially given the fact that its reputation has been repeatedly savaged by a number of scandals.

The SPP has come under further attack this week following a report released by the congressional investigative Government Accountability Office (GAO)suggesting that TSA should more closely “monitor private versus federal screener performance.”

In a statement relating to the report, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, advised the TSA not to accept any more SPP applications from airports until the issue has been looked at.

Thompson writes “…some privatized airports do not perform passenger screening as well as their federalized counterparts.”

“TSA does not have the proper controls in place to regularly monitor private screener performance and does not validate data on attrition, absenteeism, and injury rates for privatized screeners.” he adds

“GAO also shows that under the current system, it is impossible to accurately measure any system cost-savings or efficiencies by moving to the SPP model. Therefore, I would urge Administrator Pistole to refrain from approving additional SPP airports until the costs and possible benefits can be accurately assessed and we can more closely monitor the program,” Thompson’s statement reads.

Screeners employed by private companies are already used at 16 airports under the SPP. Republican Representatives John Mica of Florida, Darrell Issa of California and Jason Chaffetz of Utah have pressed TSA head Pistole to implement the mandate and accept applications from other airports. Mica has personally written to 200 airports advising them of the opportunity to op out of using TSA screeners.

“It’s critical that TSA get out of the business of running a huge bureaucracy and human resources operation and refocus its attention on security, analyzing intelligence, and setting the highest risk-based security standards. TSA needs to focus on going after terrorists — not little old ladies, veterans and children.” Mica has said.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

A security firm has discovered a vulnerability in Samsung’s ‘Smart’ TVs that allows the devices to be hacked which, if left unpatched, would permit the system’s microphone and camera to used to spy on the viewer.

Similar to an XBox Kinect, the Samsung ’Smart Hub’ line of televisions allows users to control the television via physical gestures and voice control. A high definition camera is also used by the device to allow Skype calls. The device also includes facial recognition technology. However, these features can also be hijacked to turn the television into a modern day equivalent of George Orwell’s telescreen.

“In an e-mail exchange with Security Ledger, the Malta-based firm said that the previously unknown (“zero day”) hole affects Samsung Smart TVs running the latest version of the company’s Linux-based firmware. It could give an attacker the ability to access any file available on the remote device, as well as external devices (such as USB drives) connected to the TV. And, in a Orwellian twist, the hole could be used to access cameras and microphones attached to the Smart TVs, giving remote attacker the ability to spy on those viewing a compromised set.”

The vulnerability was discovered by ReVuln, who noted that the security hole cannot be patched without voiding the TV’s warranty. In the video above, ReVuln researchers show how easy it is to gain access to the TV’s root files and copy entire contents of the hard drive as well as passwords and social networking information.

ReVuln only agreed to divulge the information to paying subscribers and Samsung did not respond to requests asking for a comment on the issue.

The use of microphones to record conversations is a major privacy issue in the both the public and private sector.

Televisions, computers and cellphones are all currently being upgraded with technology that records conversations in order to bombard users with invasive targeted advertising. Verizon recently followed Google’s lead and officially filed a patent for a set-top box that will actively spy on Americans in their own homes.

App providers on the Android network also now require users to agree to a condition that, “Allows the app to record audio with the microphone,” on cellphones and other ‘smart’ devices. “This permission allows the app to record audio at any time without your confirmation,” states the text of the agreement.

Virtually every new technological device now being manufactured that is linked to the Internet has the capability to record conversations and send them back to a central hub. Is it really any wonder therefore that former CIA directorDavid Petraeus heralded the arrival of the “smart home” as a boon for “clandestine statecraft”?

Earlier this week it was reported that authorities across the United States are planning to install microphones on buses in order to eavesdrop on passengers. The Intellistreets lighting network, also currently being installed across the country, similarly has the ability to both watch people with video cameras and record their conversations with microphones.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

Back in March Infowars noted that new guidelines put forth by the Obama administration will allow US spy agencies, under the umbrella of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), to keep records on innocent Americans without oversight for up to five years.

The rules on data retention were relaxed Following the 2009 Christmas day underpants bomber debacle. US representatives immediately called for the NCTC’s authority to be expanded, saying that there was not enough communication between intelligence agencies.

We warned that changes in such rules would aid the already vast spying architecture that the federal government has aimed directly at the American people.

This week, a report in the Wall Street Journal issues the very same warning, noting that the NCTC can use the data it collates from every US intelligence agency’s database, and analyze it to to predict possible criminal behavior of any U.S. citizen.

The WSJ report notes how a head “privacy officer” at the Department of Homeland Security explained to the Obama administration that the new privacy busting powers provided to the NCTC would bring about a “sea change”.

From now on, citizens interacting with the federal government are subjected to a procedure where the first question asked is”Are they a terrorist?”, according to the DHS official.

The ACLU has noted that NCTC is now capable of carrying out “massive, secretive data collection and mining of trillions of points of data” regarding U.S. citizens, and that “literally anything the government collects is fair game”.

The ACLU also noted that these new powers are extremely disturbing, given that the NCTC also presides over government “kill lists”, deciding which suspected terrorists are added to them via analyzing data through its “disposition matrix”.

Writing in the London Guardian, Greg Greenwald recently noted “the NCTC — now vested with the power to determine the proper “disposition” of terrorist suspects — is the same agency that is at the center of the ubiquitous, unaccountable surveillance state aimed at American citizens.”

The NCTC, made up of a combination of intelligence agencies and the Pentagon, was created in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and has drawn criticism ever since for infringement on the Fourth Amendment and basic privacy rights. It now has the ability to act as a central data point for all information on any American citizen submitted to any department of government, or procured by any intelligence agency.

Considering recent revelations that agencies such as the NSA and the CIA are vastly expanding their domestic spying operations the can only mean one thing – more Big Brother.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Infowars.com, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

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Metal detectors, x-ray machines out of use in major airports during opt out protest

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
November 23, 2012

Did the TSA once again mothball its fleet of body scanners and even de-activate metal detectors in an attempt to neutralize the nationwide TSA opt out campaign taking place this week?

Activist Christopher Key traveled to several airports around the country with the intention of deliberately setting off the metal detector and then filming his TSA pat down.

On Friday last week, Key told CBS News of his intention to take part in the Infowars Opt Out and FIlm protest by flying out of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport in Alabama in order to illustrate how Americans who are willing to give up liberty for security “lose both”.

Before passing through security, Key even took the precaution of filling his pockets with a roll of $10 dollars worth of quarters, a large set of keys, and a camera pen that could have easily been mistaken for a knife.

Intending to film his pat down and then accuse the TSA screener of “sexual assault,” Key passed through the metal detector and was surprised to see that he didn’t set it off. He then returned to security and passed through another metal detector for a second time, also without setting it off despite carrying a large amount of metal on his person.

Either the metal detectors were turned off or they completely failed to detect the metal Key was carrying, a shocking lapse in airport security in either case.

Key also noted that when he began filming TSA screeners they ceased performing full body pat downs.

Key then flew out of Salt Lake City International Airport in Utah and again passed through the metal detector carrying his quarters, keys and pen camera intending to set the device off so he would be asked to undergo a full body scanner or a pat down. For a third time the metal detector failed to go off.

Key then traveled to Dallas where he passed through security at Fort Worth International Airport. As the video below illustrates, when Key asks TSA agents why the full body scanners are not in use, they claim the machines are “broken” but fail to explain why.

With airports already crowded and busy as a result of Thanksgiving travel, in addition to the suggestion that the TSA may have tried to neutralize the national opt out campaign by simply mothballing the main object of the protest – the naked body scanner – as well as deactivating metal detectors to prevent people filming their pat downs – is this another damning illustration of how the TSA is nothing more than security theater?

If the the very device that we are told is vital in stopping terrorists, despite the fact that it hasn’t apprehended one terrorist, can be temporarily dispensed with for political reasons or simply because there are more travelers, then what use is it in the first place?

This wouldn’t be the first time that the TSA has mothballed the naked x-ray scanners for public relations purposes.

During the November 2010 national opt out day protest, reports from travelers at numerous different airports confirmed that the TSA had temporarily mothballed the body scanners in a bid to neutralize the protest. The Gizmodo website was bombarded with Tweets from eyewitnesses about how the machines were roped off or not in use at major airports throughout the country, claims later confirmed by newspaper reports but denied by the TSAitself.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.